POW! Entertainment

History

In November 2001, Stan Lee with Gill Champion and Arthur Lieberman formed POW! Entertainment, LLC, a Delaware limited liability company. POW set up their offices at the Santa Monica, California MGM HQ offices as a first look deal was negotiated in April 2002 by Lieberman with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Cheyenne Enterprises, Bruce Willis's and producer Arnold Rifkin's production company.

Lee created the risqué animated superhero series Stripperella for Spike TV's The Strip animated block which premiered on June 26, 2003. POW! has also had a dozen additional feature and television production agreements by July. Three of the films were in preproduction: Nightbird, The Femizons then with writers Cary Solomon and Chuck Konzelman and The Double Man, then under development by Training Day director Antoine Fuqua. A production agreement was signed by POW! and Idiom Films for Forever Man, an avenging hero type with a twist. While in that month, the company signed with DIC Entertainment on a TV series production deal starting with Stan Lee's Secret Super Six, about alien super powered teens taught by Lee about humanity. The in development Hefs Superbunnies animated superhero series was announced by Lee at Comic-Con 2003 which would feature a villain fighting Hugh Hefner and playmates.

Public corporation

The separate corporation POW! Entertainment, Inc., is a holding company created so as to have publicly traded stock. This corporation originated as the Delaware corporation Megatek Legacy Systems, Inc., formed August 17, 1998; this became Alta Pacific Minerals, Inc. in 1999, and Arturion Entertainment, Inc. in 2002. By 2004, Arturion' stockholder were Media Dynamics, Inc., owned by Valerie Barth, controlling stockholder, and minority stockholder, UltraVision Inc., owned by Ron Sandman. Arturion was a public shell corporation that was used to acquire POW! on May 5, 2004, with POW! members receiving Arturion shares to take it public on the over-the-counter market "Pink Sheets" in a reverse merger. Arturion changed its name to POW! Entertainment, Inc. Media Dynamics invested $500,000 for 769,250 shares with a subscription for additional shares for $650,000.

In August, 2004 he announced a superhero program that would feature Ringo Starr, the former Beatle, as the lead character. Additionally, in August of that year, Lee announced the launch of Stan Lee's Sunday Comics.

In May 2004, IDT Entertainment purchased a minority share in POW Entertainment in an agreement for exclusive distribution rights to POW's animated DVD properties and joint development of 6 cartoon films. In 2005, the company announced that another animated film that would feature the voice of Ringo Starr. Also in early 2005, the company formed a strategic partnership to develop a new mobile channel with mobile-streaming pioneer Vidiator, through Vidiator's mobile streaming technology. In 2006, this resulted in an agreement with Sprint Nextel Corp. where the Stan Lee's POW! Mobile Channel is officially listed as Sprint's Channel 70. The channel includes mobisodes with Stripperella, The Accuser and The Drifter.

In 2004, an agreement with Andrew Stevens Entertainment Group and Jeff Franklin of FWE Inc., POW! and Lee planned to produce three action movies for the Sci Fi Channel to be aired in 2005–2006. Only one movie, Lightspeed, was completed for SciFi and aired July 26, 2006.

POW! president and CEO Champion said in 2005 that Lee was creating a new superhero, Foreverman, for a Paramount Pictures movie, in tandem with producer Robert Evans and Idiom Films, with Peter Briggs hired to collaborate with Lee on the screenplay. In 2005, Lee and Michelle Rodriguez agreed to develop a Tigress film, based on the Conan the Barbarian comic book villainess.

In 2007, POW! started a series of direct-to-DVD animated films under the Stan Lee Presents banner. The two releases were Mosaic and The Condor.

POW! and Walt Disney Studios agree to a first-look deal in June 2007. The following year, the first three titles under that deal were announced: Nick Ratchet, Blaze and Tigress, an original concept from the Conan villianess.

On June 9, 2007, a suit was brought against Lee, POW!, subsidiary QED Entertainment, and former Stan Lee Media staff at POW! On January 20, 2009, Judge Stephen Wilson, in Los Angeles Federal Court, ruled that POW! had illegally transferred assets of Stan Lee Media, including the Drifter and the Accuser, to POW! in violation of a bankruptcy court order.

Brighton Partners and Rainmaker Animation announced in April 2008 a partnership with POW! to produce a CGI film series, "Legion of 5". That same month, Virgin Comics announced Lee would create a line of superhero comics for that company.

On December 31, 2009, The Walt Disney Company's Catalyst Investments acquired a 10% stake in POW! for $2.5 million, coinciding with its full acquisition of Marvel Entertainment. Also, Disney's Silver Creek Pictures entered into another agreement with POW! for first-look and consulting services.

In 2010, POW started reporting to OTC Markets Group and was moved to the Over-The-Counter QB (OTCQB) tier market from the pink sheets. In February of that year, POW! partnered with A Squared Entertainment (A2) and Archie Comics to create the Stan Lee Comics print and digital line starting with the "Super Seven". On August 5, the reality-television series Stan Lee's Superhumans show premiered on the cable channel History. Also that month, Super7, a toy manufacturer, sued POW! and partners over Stan Lee Comics' Super Seven. Late in the year, POW! and Boom! Studios began publishing three new comic-book series: Soldier Zero, Starborn, and The Traveler. In October, Guardian Media Entertainment, a partnership of Lee, SLG Entertainment and NHL Enterprises, created hockey-themed superheroes called "Guardians" for each of the 30 teams in the National Hockey League. The venture includes a graphic novel.

Ricco Capital and Panda Media Partners, a joint venture of POW! and Fidelis Entertainment, formed a partnership, Magic Storm Entertainment, in June 2011 to produce material for Asia. In 2011, Lee was writing a live-action musical, The Yin and Yang Battle of Tao. In October, Lee announced he would partner with 1821 Comics on a multimedia imprint for children, Stan Lee’s Kids Universe, a move he said addressed the lack of comic books targeted for children; and that he was collaborating with the company on its futuristic graphic novel Romeo & Juliet: The War, by writer Max Work and artist Skan Srisuwan. In November, POW signed an agreement with YouTube and Vuguru, Michael Eisner’s digital studio, to start a YouTube channel called Stan Lee's World of Heroes. That same month, the company signed a deal with EQAL to create and launch theRealStanLee.com, an official site for Lee.

In May 2012, Arthur Lieberman, Chief Operating Officer and Chief Counsel of POW!, died due to lung cancer. Also in May, POW! filed suit for fraud and breach of contract against Valerie Barth of Media Dynamics and Ron Sandman, sole director of UltraVision Inc., claiming it is owed $1.15 million for a three-million POW! common stock subscription. Barth, Sandman and their corporations countersued.

In March 2013, Hub Network picked up its first work from POW, "Stan Lee's Mighty 7", animated pilot movie to be aired in early 2014.

On April 5, 2013, a POW! joint venture with MKC Entertainment, SL Power Concerts, launched its military friendly Stan Lee's POW!er Concert series with country band Gloriana at the Pacific View Events Center, Camp Pendleton with future concerts at other military bases and proceeds going to military affiliated charities. On June 12, POW and JADS International released Stan Lee Signature Cologne. Legion of 5 was revealed in June to be a live action film at Sandman Studios affiliated live action label Paralight Films at the casting stage. Arad Productions and POW! are in early development on a new superhero movie set up at Columbia Pictures as of November 2013, which is revealed in August 2014 to be "Apollo Rising", gods living amongst us, as it was melded with the Red Queen author Victoria Aveyard script "Eternals".

POW! formed Stan Lee Global Entertainment as a joint venture in 2014 with a Hong Kong-based investment firm, Ricco Media Investments Limited. Ricco Media was purchased by Focus Media Network Limited on August 20, 2015. POW! announced two Chinese projects in October 2015, Realm superheroine movie, the first by Stan Lee Global Entertainment and “Arch Alien” sci-fi movie.

Disney's second and final project under the first look deal with POW is "The Zodiac Legacy" book series with the first book to be released through Disney Publishing Worldwide in January 2015. However, the first look deal agreed to in 2006 and extended in 2009 was allowed to expire as of December 31, 2014.

Digital Domain announced a joint venture company 25% owned by POW! was announced in January 2015 for development, production and international distribution of project from either owner. Also a part of this deal is the creation of a virtual Stan Lee.

Stan Lee's Lucky Man was picked up in March 2015 by Sky1 for a 10 episode 1 hour show as a POW! coproduction with Carnival Films for his first UK drama series. A second season (UK: series) was ordered for the show in March 2016 as it was Sky1's highest-rated original drama program ever.

Units

Investors